You’ve probably heard about the “intolerant left”. That usually applies to people on college campuses, students, liberal arts professors and the like. But until relatively recently, the mainstream rank-and-file Democrats have wanted their lawmakers to reach compromises whereas the Republicans have stressed “our way or the highway”.

Well, a combination of Trump, The Turtle and noxious right wing media have lead to a change of attitude:

Via @pewresearch : Democrats used to be much more likely than Republicans to say they like elected officials who compromise with those on the other side.

You know: if you keep reaching out only to get your hand bitten off (as Obama did) and to have the Republicans act so horribly, well, there are consequences.

And yes, there has always been an intolerant right wing…

(and no, I do not like it)

Religion
The results of this Pew Poll are interesting. Though there is certainly a correlation between belief in a type of deity and belonging to a religion, there ARE atheist Catholics and believing “none of the aboves” and “atheists who accept some sort of higher power”. A lot of belonging to a religion is ..well…social.

Workout notes

Kind of tired; last night: I went to the 5:30 core strength class instead of the 6:30 yoga class (Ms. V. put us through a good ab routine).

Then running: 2 miles of .25 froggy: 5.1-5.8, then 1 mile at 5.8 (10:20 pace), retreat to 5.1-5.4 (43:50 at 4 miles), last mile in 10:35 (54:25 for 5). No foot pain. Not that hard; not in the mood to push.

The run: 56:40 for 5 (34:17); did 5.1-5.5 every 5 minutes, then back down to 5.1-5.4, etc. I wanted to quit after 2 miles; not out of breath but bored and uninterested and unwilling to hurt. changing the pace kept me interested. Foot: some ache at 3.5, off and on the rest of the way. It is not 100 percent but still much better.

So, I’ll just say it: if you like sports, look beyond the mega crowd things. No, the baseball is NOT professional level, but it still very good and entertaining.
BTW, here is an excellent article about the various levels of minor league ball..and this clears up some questions I had. It also explains why I’ve seen some guys just crush the radar gun at the A level (90-100 mph at times) and yet not be quite ready for major league ball. At the pro level, the guys can hit the blistering fast balls if they know they are coming; the polished pitchers have to keep the batters off guard with a plan, change ups, moving pitches, etc.

BTW, I played at pony level, and I could hit bad high school level pitching. I couldn’t touch the better high school pitchers though.

Yes, it is entirely possible that genetics plays a role; it is possible that there is a higher percentage of genetic outliers for basketball and football among African Americans (as there are among Samoans). Of course, social factors have to play a role too; witness the DECLINE of African Americans in major league baseball(related note: at a college baseball game, I was startled to see that Chicago State’s team was predominately white; CS is a historically black college with 70 percent black students).

But that was a digression from the main thrust of the article in question which was roughly this: when black people look “for a way up” in life, they are apt to see mostly black NFL and NBA teams (as well as top college teams) and think “oh, that is what we do well” and focus on that. But the reality that only a small percentage of people from ANY group will stand a chance of being a D1 scholarship athlete and a very, very tiny percentage stand a chance of a professional sports career.

The reality is that, even for black people, the probability of becoming an engineer, accountant, lawyer, college professor, teacher, computer programmer, business owner, military officer, CEO, (etc.) is several orders of magnitude higher. THAT is the way up for all but a tiny handful of genetic outliers. On that message, the article is right on point!

run: 5 minute froggy 5.1-5.8, then final mile 6.2-6.5 (33:10, 43:38, 53:21). I actually felt..good? This wasn’t that hard. My guess: I did a very easy 5K walk after weights the day before instead of a run. The damned formula keeps changing on me as I age! By the time I figure it out..it changes again!

Commentary: I am on the Illinois Valley Striders Facebook page, and the moderators fill it with “you can do it”, “push past the fear”, “you can do more than you think you can” stuff. That really drives home how out of touch I am.

With me: it is mostly about “dialing back” expectations! It is about managing the little aches and pains, adjusting to how my body feels on a given day, and perhaps doing a bit more (within reason!) on good days, and settle for “just doing it at all” on the tougher days. I keep thinking that there will be that one workout where my body will say: “oh, just kidding, here are your 6:30 mpm miles back” but … it hasn’t happened yet.

And that means, at least for me at the moment, a decent training pace in running is 11:30 mpm, 10 mpm is “brisk” and 9 mpm is an OMG pace. Walking: 14 is moving, 15 is brisk, 16-17 is “deliberate”. That is just how it is. Of course, part of the reason is that I have to mix up activities: 2 yoga, 2 swim, 1 bike, 2-3 walking, 3 runs, 3 weight lifting sessions per week. I don’t do any one thing enough to get significantly better at it, but I am avoiding the doctor’s office too.

Later: yoga; Vickie did more of a traditional class ..like I remember.

I had told her that I thought she had “gotten soft”. 🙂

What is going on with me: for the past couple of days, I’ve felt achy..a bit tired but not extremely so. Digestion is not smooth. Old injuries hurt just a tiny bit.
I wonder if I have a mini-bug OR if Tuesday’s run was, well, tough for me. I remember doing a similar run on Thursday of last week and then struggling in Saturday’s run.

But, more importantly, there is quite a bit of evidence that Trump uses this mannerism to mock *everyone* he wants to mock.

So, I really believe he was just mocking a reporter.

Now if you want to say that mocking people in this manner isn’t “presidential” behavior, well, I might agree with you.

I think the lesson here is that I (and many others) really want to believe the worst about those we dislike. Therefore, I must approach all “did you see what Trump just did” stories with a bit of skepticism.

Note: I really do not believe that Trump will be removed from office; I see that as a very remote possibility. And it probably isn’t helpful for Democrats to run “on impeachment”..especially those who are running in Republican held states and Congressional Districts.

But I do think things like this MIGHT help us beat him when he runs for reelection.

Personal and workout stuff (TMI)

For the past couple of days, I have not felt “Right”; lower GI while, not bad, is..off. I ache more than normal (joints, old injuries) and last night, after yoga, my right knee was somewhat unstable (too much kneeling in class?) The stomach stuff: probably our campus tragedy …that really, really bothered me. It still does..I just felt dejected .

One of things I am most amused by are approval ratings polls. If you follow the social media of Trump haters (I do not approve of him as president), you’ll hear that his ratings are dropping..always dropping…

Even an average of polls shows some “fluctuation”; the polls go up and down with time, even when the trend is steady. This is due to randomness of sampling and perhaps some sample error. So, if in one poll, Trump is 38 in one poll and 40 in the next, his supporters say “Trump is gaining in the polls”. But then if he goes to 37 in the next one, Trump opponents cry “he is dropping like a rock!”

If you hang around Trump opponents, you hear only about the drops, and if you hang around supporters, he hear only about the gains.

Sam Wang got it right:

In the hands of innumerate journalists, statistical fluctuation can create an Escher stairwell of ascending ratings that end up in the same place. https://t.co/QXjOXeKGPX

Well, no baseball for me…4 Bradley games cancelled in a row! Oh well..

I have some tasks to perform. I am amused by the Stormy interview though, especially given our FLOTUS (is there really much difference between them?) And yeah, of course, right on cue, some liberals are claiming that she is a serious businesswoman, that she shouldn’t be shamed for being a porn star, etc. When we get tribal, well, the difference between “the sides” becomes the flavor of the kool-aid.

One task I performed: I took a survey about my teaching. My current courses: a business major math course (things like present value for annuities calculation, supply/demand equilibrium, etc.) and a complex variables class. I was asked all sort of questions about whether my students were being exposed to different cultures, encouraged to be more diverse, etc. Dammit: I want the students to be able to do the frigging math! Grrr…I really wonder if some conservative critiques of college education have some merit. There really isn’t an “inclusive” way to calculate the present value of a monthly annuity with a 5 percent nominal interest rate.

Workout notes swimming, then 4 miles of running. The heel limited me slightly as I was walking TO the gym (but oh-so-slightly) and the swim loosened it up.

swim: 2200 yards, 250 free, 250 fist/free, 250 of free/back, 250 of breast/back, then 5 x (100 swim, 100 pull, and every other swim 100 started with 25 of drill). Then 200 in 3:35, and Jason just SMOKED me during this segment.

run: treadmill, slight discomfort at first but ok; my conditioning limited me much more than my heel: 11:50, 22:55, 33:38, 43:50. last mile: 5.7, 5.8, 6.0, 6.2/6.3. Best run in a while (yes, I suck that badly)

199.8 before the swim (and after breakfast and gallons of coffee), 198.0 after the swim.

Last night: Bradley Baseball played its home opener (they are having a good season so far). They beat Chicago State (a team that has won a few games and been competitive in others) 16-1; the BU starter struck out 9 over 5 innings and allowed 1 hit; the game was called after 7 innings due to the score.

Though college baseball is high level and a lot of fun to watch, I did notice that some of the outfield hits would have been “outs” at a Chiefs game; at that level (“low” A), the fielders are a bit faster and get a better jump on the ball.

And that is something about sports: there is performance. If one cannot practice due to life problems, illness, or whatever, one’s performance will suffer and there will be consequences, even if the circumstances are not the fault of the individual player.

On the other hand, in the classroom, all too often students see their grade as some sort of “sign of virtue” (they tried therefore they deserve…) or a “commodity” that I have and that they want rather than a score of how they did and how much they know. Time and time again, students have told me “this is hard for me” or “I’ve got so much going on and I need this grade” as if those statements should have an effect on the grade they are assigned. They do not; I use a spreadsheet and take the names off (split screen view) ..and once in a while, I am surprised that a student gets assigned the grade that they got.

A grade can be very much like a finishing time: you run and there it is. You can’t argue that the clock keeper should spot you a few seconds because “you need it” or “you tried hard”.

Workout notes: swim, then a run/walk. The foot was a bit sorer today;

swim: 250 warm up (bad), 5 x 50 fist/drill, 500 (chased Jason; kept within one body length), 100 back, 100 breast, 4 x 100 IM (bad), 200 swim/drill, 200 (3:40), 100 (1:50), 50, 50 c/d
run: had to quit .25 miles into it..but the foot loosened up and then 2 miles in 22:50. Foot was starting to “work” so I stopped, went to the track and walked 2 miles (16 laps, lane one, plus the straight away) in 28:45. Foot felt great afterward.

About Blueollie

To keep track of my sports activities. I rarely train for anything anymore; mostly I just do workouts of the following types: running, walking, weight lifting and swimming. My best ultra accomplishment was walking 101 miles in 24 hours in 2004. These days, I walk a marathon every once in a while (5:50 to 7 hours) There was a time when I could run a sub 40 minute 10K (did that once), but that was another lifetime ago; these a days 2427-282525:50-27:45 28-31 minutes for a 5K would be more like it. I also have an off and on interest in yoga and in weight training. My lifetime PB in the bench is 310; currently I do sets of 4-5 with 190 185.

Best this year has been 200 (relatively easy).

To discuss the football, basketball or baseball game I’ve been to. Since 2011, I started to attend live football games regularly (University of Illinois, sometimes Illinois State, sometimes either the Colts or Bears of the NFL…don’t get me started on the Rams) ; I’ve attended Bradley Basketball games (men and women) for some time. In the past 3 years, I started to watch live baseball again (mostly the Peoria Chiefs (low A affiliate of the Cardinals) and Bradley University; sometimes the Normal Cornbelters (Frontier League; similar to low A level ball).

From time to time, I post what I am thinking about mathematically

I often post links to science articles, especially articles about cosmology and evolution.

I am very sympathetic to the “new atheist” movement, though some might consider me to be an agnostic. I reject any notion of a deity that interferes with physical events, but remain agnostic to the idea that there might be something “grand and wonderful” (Dawkins’ phrase) outside of our current spacetime continuum.

I am a liberal Democrat who thinks that the current social atmosphere is tilted way too far toward the interests of big business, and I reject the idea that a “free market” cures all ills, though pure socialism doesn’t work either. I am also a believer in the freedom of speech, including speech that I might not like. Also, I’ve been involved (to a moderate degree) with political campaigns, ranging from City Council races up to Presidential races.

I like to post photos of trips and vacations.

I like women in spandex. 🙂

The 2016 election: I voted for Hillary Clinton and was dismayed that she lost the Electoral College, though I take a bit of comfort that a plurality of voters preferred her (by just over 2 percentage points!)

I see Donald Trump as an unqualified amateur who lacks the humility and deportment to be an effective president; I sure hope the time proves me wrong. It does not appear that I am wrong though (as of June, 2018) I’ve been wrong before (e. g. my election prediction) and will be wrong again. I hope this is one of those times.